Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.nursinginpractice.com
GP practices and care homes will be impacted by flooding and burst pipes in winter without investment into NHS buildings, The King’s Fund has warned.
The think tank raised its concerns in response to NHS England’s (NHSE) latest Estates Returns Information Collection data for 2025/26 – a document setting out the latest costs and operations across the NHS and revealing that the cost to eradicate backlog maintenance works is currently £17.3bn.
NHSE states in the document published last week that the £17.3bn is the investment needed to ‘restore buildings to a defined condition based on assessed risk, excluding planned maintenance’.
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The King’s Fund dubbed the cost ‘a shocking indictment of the state of the NHS estate’, warning that general practices and care homes are at risk of being ‘fundamentally unequipped’ this winter.
It has called for ‘proper capital investment’ across all healthcare settings and stressed that without it, NHSE is risking the safety of patients and staff.
The King’s Fund’s director of policy Siva Anandaciva said: ‘Every day, patients and staff are impacted by issues such as outdated equipment, faulty tech, concrete roofs at risk of collapse or sewage leaking through corridors.
‘The dilapidated state of parts of the NHS is a national embarrassment. This isn’t the environment that taxpayers and patients expect their care to be delivered in nor the conditions that staff should be experiencing when they come to work.
‘Too many NHS buildings are fundamentally unequipped to handle the climate pressures we are facing year-round.
‘Hospitals, GP practices and care homes will be impacted by everything from flooding in winter from burst pipes, to overheating equipment during summer heatwaves.’
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She added: ‘Without proper capital investment across all our healthcare settings, patients and staff will continue to pay the price and avoidable safety incidents will sadly remain rife.
‘And if the government is not willing to fund the investment the NHS needs, it should be honest with the public about the consequences of this decision.’
In the summer the union Unison warned that nurses and other NHS staff had been working in ‘insanitary and unsafe conditions’ with reports of rotting rats, insect infestations and leaking sewage in clinics, hospitals and ambulance stations across the country.
In August, a GP surgery in Derby was forced to temporarily close because of concerns for staff and patient wellbeing during hot weather temperatures.
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Meanwhile, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) also warned in the summer that nurses had collapsed at work and were dreading their shifts because of extreme heat. The RCN had urged the government to government to take urgent action to ‘heat-proof’ facilities, to work more widely to reduce emissions and ‘play a leading role on the global stage in the fight against global warming’.
The Estates Returns Information Collection also revealed the cost of running the NHS estate is currently £14.bn, with £1.6bn for cleaning services and £0.8bn on inpatient provisions.
